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294 RESCUE OF THE PERISHING.arm, while with the other she held fast to her precarious haven ofrefuge. The minister held a baby of i8 months in the same manner,and while the little one cried for food he prayed. In othertrees the family he had rescued from drowning found a precariousfooting.When the night had passed and the water receded, wreckage,dead animals and the corpses of parishioners surrounded thedevoted party. There was nothing to eat, and, nearly dead withexhaustion, the preacher and his little flock set out on foot toseek assistance. They were too weak to continue far, and sankdown on the plain, while Mr. Davis pushed on alone. Five milesaway a farmhouse was found, partially intact, and securing ateam, Davis returned for his half-dead party.SUBSISTED ON RAW MEAT.For two days they remained at the home of the hospitablefarmer, and then set out afoot to find a hamlet or make their wayover the desert-like peninsula to Bolivar Point. In the heat ofthe burning sun they plodded on along the water front, subsistingupon a steer which they killed and devoured raw, until finallythey came upon an abandoned and overturned sailboat high onthe beach.With a united effort they succeeded in launching the boat,and with improvised distress signals displayed, managed to sailto Galveston. There, because of red tape, they were unable tosecure clothing, although they were given a little food and transportationto Houston. Clad in an old pair of trousers, a tatteredshirt and torn shoes, with his family in even worse plight, thecircuit rider of the Patton Beach, Johnston's Bethel, BolivarPoint and High Island Methodist Churches rode into Houston,dirty, weak and half-starved. Here the family were sent to ahospital and cared for.Bolivar reported that up to date 220 bodies had been foundand buried, and many were still lying on the sands. Assistancewas needed at once. It is a fact generally commented upon, andmerely emphasized by the clergyman's experience, that while